Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa: what did she really look like?

A reconstruction has been made of the head of Seianti Hanunia
Tlesnasa, an Etruscan noblewoman and owner of a fabulous painted
sarcophagus in The British Museum.

Seianti's skull, like the rest of her skeleton, was extremely
well-preserved. Staff at the Unit of Art in Medicine at Manchester
University used soft tissue measurements to build up the face on a
plaster cast of the skull, a forensic technique originally devised
to create images of otherwise unidentifiable human remains for
police investigations.

Seianti was about fifty years old at the time of death, as shown
by an examination of the dentine of her teeth at the University of
Wales Dental School. The defect in her jaw and other distortions
down her right side may indicate severe injuries received in
adolescence. This damage and the strongly-developed muscle
attachments in her thighs have led a pathologist to suggest that
Seianti was a keen horse-rider who suffered a major accident,
perhaps involving her horse falling on her. Over the years the
resulting arthritis led to increasing inactivity and thus to a gain
in weight.

The reconstruction reveals a striking similarity in the
features, though the ancient artist has made her somewhat younger
and prettier. He may well have referred either to the facial
features of Seianti herself or perhaps to an earlier portrait of
her. The implication is that some at least of the representations
on Etruscan sarcophagi and cinerary urns bear true resemblances to
the dead.